


Got To Get Going

by Gildedmuse



Series: 11 Painful Partings [8]
Category: Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Genre: Challenge Response, Friendship, Gen, Leaving Home, Need To Rewrite, Niche Fandom Fic, Not In The Style Of The Original Work, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-01-25 19:10:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18580795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gildedmuse/pseuds/Gildedmuse





	Got To Get Going

**Gotta Get Going**

“Guess what folks are saying must be true then, huh?”  
  
If he were being an honest boy, and Tom is trying so to be an honest boy these days, he’d had been waiting around for this part. He could have caught the last train if he’d been inclined, and his aunt had been eager for him to do just that. In her own way, pushing Tom out of the house so early had been Aunt Polly’s last gift to the boy, giving him a few additional hours of freedom as he set off to New York.  
  
And with that freedom what does Tom Sawyer do? Why, he stands outside the old train station and misses the first train out because he figures, well, it might take Huck a while before he gives in and comes by to see Tom off.  
  
“Aunt Polly says they got plenty of jobs out there for a boy like me.” A clever boy, his aunt would tell him, perhaps too clever at times but in the city, that would be a fine thing. He’s sixteen, and that is too old to still be living at home when he could be out making a living, and it seemed to Tom and the rest of the town that he had always been too big for this small town.  
  
“So you’re just leaving then…” It wasn’t right for a seventeen year old boy to be pouting, but Huckleberry Finn never had learned what exactly was proper. He was the wild boy that no widow or teacher could tame, the boy that Tom Sawyer, leader of the boys of St. Petersburg, wanted more than anything to be and often tried, much to the distress of his Aunt Polly. “Ain’t even gonna say goodbye, you was just gonna go and leave.”  
  
“I waited around for you, didn’t I?” Tom Sawyer was a lot of things, and proud was one of them and when Huck questions his inherent goodness and boyness by suggesting he was the type that just left his friends without a word, well, it hurt a little. Tom answers by puffing out his chest, trying to look as much like a man as he could. “Knew you’d come by eventually.”  
  
“Knew I’d come by?” Huck snorts now, pushing himself off the side of the building and walking right up to Tom. He’s taller, thicker too from all his time spent outside, building shelter and shacks and what have you. He was rough in a way that Tom Sawyer was not, and a sight intimidating when upset, but Tom would not let it shake him. He stood right back up to Huck, lifting his head as high as he could so Huck knew he wasn’t about to back down, no matter how much he pushed. “And what if I hadn’t, what then? You plan on sleeping here until I did?”  
  
“Well…” Well, of course not, but Tom couldn’t say that as it would be admitting to exactly what Huck was accusing him of, and Tom would not allow that. “If hadn’t come, what kinda friend would you be not to come and see me off, huh?”  
  
That’s Tom’s oldest tactic, to turn it around and set it on the other boy’s shoulders. Huck had been living with this for years, and still his face seemed to soften as he considered this for a while. Was he just as bad as Tom if he hadn’t shown up? “But… You’re the one leaving,” Huck figures after a few moments thinking it over. “You shoulda come and seen me.”  
  
“As long as we see each other, does it really matter?” Tom asks, smiling some because it seemed he would once again be getting his way. He got to say goodbye to Huck, and he wasn’t going to get in trouble because for the last week, ever seen Aunt Polly got him the train ticket, he’d been too afraid to mention it to his best friend.  
  
Tom Sawyer was not the sort of boy who admitted fear, but the truth was that he didn’t want to leave Huck and that feeling scared him enough that he couldn’t get himself to say a proper, long goodbye. This way was easier, already standing at the train station with his suitcase in hand, waiting to take off to the city. Nothing could stop him now, not even having Huck here, so it wasn’t so scary to Tom how much he wanted to stay.  
  
Not even leaving Becky left Tom disappointed in the same way, but then he never looked up to Becky the way he did Huck. Never wanted to spend all his time around her, being just like her, never wanted her attention and approval in quite the same way he went looking for Huck’s. And Huck, like some sort of older brother, let Tom follow him about.  
  
Looking back, Tom could see it must have been annoying when Huck had this little boy trailing everywhere after him, trying to live his life. But now Tom was ready to move onto his own, and he didn’t want to let Huck scare him out of it last minute. Didn't want to think about just how much he wished he would stay with Huck. Huck was something he wanted to stay around and someone who made Tom feel safe even if Huck got annoyed with him plenty. Even if he thought Tom was childish and told him so plenty of times, even still Tom didn't want to leave.  
  
“You could always visit.” Please visit, was what Tom wanted to go saying, but he couldn't get the words out because when he thought them, they didn't sound appropriate at all. So maybe some of that stuff that Aunt Polly had been trying to teach him finally sunk in somewhere.  
  
“You know I ain’t gonna visit,” Huck snorted, and Tom looked down at his shoes, almost ashamed that he went and said such a thing. No, of course Huck wouldn’t go out of his way to visit Tom, even if he wanted the other boy to come along. It would have been a fine adventure for them, but he couldn’t make Huck come along. Tom needed to get his own adventure, just this once. “So you’re really going, then?”  
  
“Yeah,” Tom answered, still not looking back at his friend. “Yeah, suppose I am.”  
  
“When you come back, Tom Sawyer, I’m still going to be here.” And that was the promise that Tom had been waiting for, and he could finally make himself get on that train.


End file.
